vi A TEMPLE OF THE WATERS 89
no one had come across the river for so long. But
they gave us a guide to the nearest village where we
could hire donkeys.
We waved a last farewell to the guards at Yu Men
K'ou—there was a diminutive figure on the highest
battlement that I was sure was Little Tiger. For some
miles we trudged along the sandy bank of the river.
Below the pass it broadened out to a width of at
least half a mile: here, in the shelter of the loess
cliffs, it was almost warm. Except for a few narrow
channels, the river was completely frozen over with
light ice.
At a mean little village on the river-bank we secured
four donkeys to take us to Hanchang, a hsien city
about twenty miles to the south. It was here that
Miao hoped to make the connection with his friends.
We were determined to complete the journey in one
stage.
All our gear had been loaded on the donkeys, and
I was having a private debate as to whether I dared
add another twelve stone to the substantial load my
beast already carried, when there was a wail of despair
from Li. I had never seen him show strong emotion
before; but it appeared that he had lost eight dollars
climbing the hillside above the river, and was deter-
mined to go back to retrieve it. We persuaded him
that it was more urgent to press on to Hanchang,
but he was inconsolable. All that day and at intervals
during the rest of our journey, he illustrated by a
lively pantomime the way in which the money had
slipped out of his inner pocket as he raised one knee
to climb. This personal tragedy shook him more than
any hazardous adventure. It was probably the first
money he had ever lost in his life.